Chardonnay Day

Last week I celebrated my first ever Chardonnay Day. Yes, that's right, a whole day dedicated to drinking, talking and tweeting about Chardonnay.

I'm not the biggest Chardonnay fan, but I put this down to past experience of bad bottles and Kath and Kim's Cardonnay references sticking in my head. So the special Chardonnay master class dinner, hosted by Peter Bourne at Coast restaurant at Cockle Bay Wharf, was a very pleasant surprise.

The dinner followed a two hour taste and tweet up to celebrate the international day. Ten carefully selected wines were chosen to be matched with food, which was to be honest pretty thin on the ground, as the growing number of inebriated guests proved.

Peter Bourne made for a great host, talking through each wine at the beginning of each course. He was joined by Andrew Spinaze from Tyrrell's Wines and David Bicknell from Oakridge Wines who also added their own commentary.

Favourite Chardies from the night included the 2009 Freycinet Chardonnay from Tasmania, a crisp, dry and fresh wine that could have almost been mistaken for a Riesling, and the 2009 Philip Shaw No.11 Chardonnay from Orange which had a much more traditional Chardonnay taste which was warm, soft and oaky and went beautifully with the Scallop with celery, apple and walnut salad.

Throughout the event, a screen at the side of the room showed the hundreds of wine lovers and enthusiasts tweeting away about their Chardonnay Day experiences and favourite bottles. It was certainly an experience and a great learning curve for someone who had almost written off this great varietal.

Next stop, Cabernet Day!

H

A Little Golden wine list

Q: What can you do to make a simple wine list look fun and inviting?

A: Put it inside a children's book!

Last night I checked out the Hunky Dory Social Club in Darlinghurst. The funkily-designed venue has two levels of bars and an Italian restaurant, Bruno's, on the ground floor.

While waiting for our table for dinner, we popped up to the top floor bar terrace where we found a very Melbourne-esque space with exposed brick walls, squishy old couches and hanging lanterns. We went to the bar to order our drinks and having asked for the wine list, I was presented with a children's book....one of the Little Golden Books of our youth (am I showing my age here?!). 

Opening it up I found the original kids book with a wine list inside. How fun, a wine list and an entertaining read all at once! I picked the 2008 Sensi Cupido Sangiovese which was a beautifully soft, velvety, rounded red that was the perfect accompaniment to a chilly May evening.

We sank a few of these and then proceeded downstairs to Bruno's for dinner, where we were given another Little Golden book - Make way for the highway - and ordered another couple of glasses. Very cute idea. Love it.

H

More cheese please!

Me and my lovely work colleagues received a very special treat last week.....a cheese and wine tasting class. What a perfect way to end the working day!

The very knowledgable Claudia Bowman from McIntosh & Bowman gave me and the girls an insight into the wonderful world of cheese with a tasting of 6 cheeses (French and Australian), matched with 3 French wines.

We were taught about the different types of cheese from fresh to bloomy, washed to blue veined, and learnt about the variety of milks used including goat and cow's. My favourites on the tasting plate were the silky smooth, award-winning Holy Goat from Sutton Grance, VIC and the stinky, gooey Livarot from Normandy, France.

Claudia talked us through each cheese and allowed us to sample each wine to see which we thought worked with which cheese, rather than telling us which one to match with what.

I started with the Les Petites Vignettes Pinot Noir Chardonnay from Burgundy which perfectly suited the bloomy, soft cheeses. Next I cracked into the Domaine Pichot Coteau de la Biche Vouvray, which was a delightfully light and fruity wine and went perfectly with the strong, smelly cheeses, cutting through the fatty texture. I then finished with the Georges DuBoeuf Beaujolais, which isn't a favourite variety of mine, however it did work well in that its dry finish cleansed the palette after all the rich flavours.

I managed to finish off all of my cheese plate, and most of the other girls', then went home fat and full! I would highly recommend the class to anyone. Details on the website.

Cheesy goodness!

H